The charming French actress Audrey Tautou is best known for starring in the title role of 2001’s “Amélie”. Currently appearing alongside Tom Hanks in her first American blockbuster, “The Da Vinci Code”, the stunning actress has touched audiences worldwide with her moving performances.
Born in Beaumont, France in the late 1970s (the year is often reported as ’76 or ‘78), Tautou aspired at an early age to become an actress or comedian. After graduating from high school in Montluçon, she moved to Paris to attend college at the Cours Florent, where she took acting courses and earned a BA in Literature. The talented actress garnered a few roles on French television, and in 1999 participated in a Canal Plus-sponsored young performer’s competition called “The Young First” and received the Best Young Comedienne Award at the 9th Béziers Festival of Young Comedians. Her increased exposure led to a major breakthrough around the same time – the lead role in Tonie Marshall’s award-winning French dramedy “Venus Beauty Institute”. The hit film made Tautou a recognizable face in France, and in 2000 she won the prestigious Prix Suzanne Bianchetti, given to her as the country’s most promising young film actress.
When famed French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet cast Tautou as the curious young woman Amélie Poulain in his 2001 film, she went from a local celebrity to an international star. The Oscar-nominated film was a rare foreign language hit in the U.S., and found even greater success on DVD. The colorfully written and hopeful comedy hit a nerve around the world, as its release in 2001 coincided with an incredibly bleak period of international terrorism and political uncertainty. Tautou’s charmingly doe-eyed performance in the film has become undeniably iconic, and regardless of how high her star rises she will always be remembered for bringing to life one of the most memorably idealistic characters in screen history.
Tautou has impressed in other roles as well, most notably in Stephen Frears’ “Dirty Pretty Things”, the international hit “L’ Auberge espagnole”, and in a beautiful dramatic performance in Jeunet’s “A Very Long Engagement”. Ron Howard’s “The Da Vinci Code” will likely see her become even more popular, and it isn’t hard to say that few other young actresses have as much potential as the effortlessly charming Tautou.